The only thing I would say is that I have been a governor. To begin with my career as a military man, from lieutenant colonel, that is one pip, in charge of 36 people, to a general commanding a division…
I am proud to say that I am the only officer in the Nigeria army that commanded three out of the four divisions then in the Nigeria army: the second division in Ibadan, the third armoured division in Jos and the fourth division in Lagos, which was moved to Enugu and renamed 82 division. I commanded three divisions out of the four.
And then I became command-in-chief, as short as it was, for 20 months.
And then I became command-in-chief, as short as it was, for 20 months.
And politically, I was governor of the northeast, which is now six states, comprising Yobe, Borno, Adamawa, Gombe, Bauchi and Taraba. From there, when Gen. Murtala Muhammed was assassinated [in 1976], and there were additional states in the country and I was moved to Lagos, I was sworn in as member of the Supreme Military Council under Obasanjo’s government and then made federal commissioner of petroleum and chairman of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
And from there I went to the War College in the US, came back and became head of state. And I ended up in jail for three and a quarter years (general laughter). After that, I went home and I decided to join partisan politics in April 2002. So anything a Nigerian politician wants to be, I have been, although in khaki.
So I have been attempting since 2003 to go back in civil dress and play partisan politics.
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